Ever have one of those “what if” questions pop up in you brain and refuse to leave? Answering those questions takes time and experimentation, something artists don’t often have in between making new work, meeting exhibit deadlines, teaching schedules, keeping up with business details, and everyday life!

Last week I found a few days to look into one of those “what if” questions that had been nagging me for a while. What if I combine pulled warp with a wedge weave structure?

Technically, every wedge weave can be pulled. The warps are vertical and wefts are placed at an angle, so pulling the warp will result in a wavy fabric. The magic of pulled warp, though, is that a spacer is added to the warp, leaving those warp yarns unwoven. The weft is woven around the spacers. When the tapestry is finished, the warps are pulled to close up those holes left by the open warp. The closed spaces create 3-shapes.

The picture top left shows two of the open warps sections after I removed the spacers. There was a third larger triangle later placed in top center. That gave me the flat section in the center, without waves.

I wanted to know if I could create open tubes or flaps in the fabric, similar to pulled warp with a traditional plain horizontal weave. This was a quick experiment that yielded some interesting results.

First, the small triangle spacer on the left was placed with the flat end parallel to the warp yarn. When pulled that gave me the start of an open-ended tube. Yay! (See picture in second row above, left).

The other two triangle spacers, placed to match the triangle weaving and placed with the long edge flat on the fell line, pulled the weaving to a flat surface. Interesting. That can be useful information for the future.

The top right image shows what the tapestry looked like when I pulled the warps only to close the gaps in the weaving left by the spacers. I get a bow-shaped work. That’s useful information also.

But I wanted straight selvedges top and bottom, so the pulling continued. The result of this first experiment is that I have lovely ridges, a small tube on the left bottom, exaggerated scallopes on the side selvedges and a small flat section in near the center.

There’s lots still to work out, but there’s a new tool in my wedge weave box.

5.5 x 11.5 inches, wool warp & hand-dyed wool weft.